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Introduction

London is rich in history, culture and entertainment. A key attraction for visitors is the diverse music scene offered by the city’s theatres, opera houses, music halls, entertainment venues and street musicians.  

This gallery, Musical London, shows how Londoners have experienced and enjoyed the city’s music over time. It reveals the important role music has played, and continues to play, in London’s transport imagery. 

Posters

Women became an important consumer audience in the twentieth century. This poster, from a series exploring London through the senses, looks like a Vogue magazine cover. It was designed to appeal to modern, stylish young women and invites them to enjoy the rich sounds of the city.

In 1933 the newly formed London Transport took over responsibility for all public transport services. Posters like this one began to promote concerts and cabarets more widely, to encourage travel to the city in the evenings and weekends.

This poster promoted traditional annual pantomimes and plays. In 1933, you could see Dick Whittington at the London Hippodrome, or the Queen of Hearts at the Lyceum, complete with a real tumbling palace of cards. The airbrush technique used by this artist was very new at the time.

Here Williamson has created a vibrant music hall scene. The lines created by outstretched arms and legs convey the motion of the dancers and conductor. The dancers seem to draw us into the poster, inviting us to join in.

In this poster, the well-known Christmas song Jingle bells has been adapted to promote London Transport’s seasonal travel perks. Musical notes have been replaced by jolly red roundels, encouraging Christmas shoppers to use public transport and save money.

Hammond has used a limited colour palette in a style that is reminiscent of Japanese wood block printing. The composition is also influenced by his work as a stage and theatre designer.

This collaborative poster, promoting the rich repertoire on offer at London’s concert halls, is by mosaic artists, Unger and Schulze. Brahms plays the piano while the busts of Beethoven and Bach look on. The English composer Benjamin Britten peers down from above.

This poster is No. 9 in a series of delightful ‘Humours’ by Sarg, highlighting different activities around London. The Proms are a long-established celebration of musical performance. In 1913 audiences enjoyed symphonies by Ludwig Van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Wagner.

In 1980 London Transport produced a series of posters telling commuters they could save money on travel by purchasing a season ticket. These tickets were used to promote the wide variety of musical performances and venues that the city had to offer.

Passengers were encouraged to use the Underground for weekend leisure activities as well as travelling to work. This poster promoted orchestral concerts held on Sundays. Taylor’s elegant poster depicts Queen’s Hall in Westminster.

Commissioned poster art was viewed as an irrelevant luxury in the 1970s. Glendening’s colourful depiction of a brass band is a rare example. At this time, free music in London’s parks was still regularly enjoyed by Londoners and visitors alike.

The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual celebration of Caribbean culture enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of people. It brings together diverse communities through artistic, creative and musical street performance. Managing the huge crowds presents a big challenge for TfL.

This lively poster by Huntley and Muir shows the many competing forms of entertainment to be enjoyed in the West End. Cinema, bars and live music are popular pursuits alongside long-standing and diverse theatre performances.

This poster is one of a series of four designed by Pears. The others featured the student, film-lover and playgoer. It is stylistically very different to his seascapes and countryside views. The Queen’s Hall in the background was destroyed by a bomb in the Second World War.

Here we see a lively West End scene. The post-war years saw this part of the city buzzing with new street life, restaurants and jazz clubs. People were encouraged to enjoy the nightlife as the Underground ran until after midnight on weekdays.

In this picture Unger has turned his attention to the audience rather than the stage. Painted in a more abstract style, it is reminiscent of the work of nineteenth century French Impressionists.

Shepard uses Greek and Roman style theatre masks in this design. They offer comic, satyr and tragic expressions. The poster encourages the audience to see themselves through the characters. Shepard also designed an attractive border for the 1946 version of Beck’s Tube map.

Theatres in the 1920s had to compete with the rapidly improving technology of radio. The BBC began broadcasting in 1922 and the Underground responded by luring audiences in with sophisticated and striking advertising, like this poster by Danvers.

Caley, a mixed media artist who specialises in mosaics, has cleverly integrated the iconic roundel as a spotlight on the theatre curtain. 

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